Patent Infringement Damages And Injunctions – The Basics

Patents, as one part of intellectual property protection, provide a valuable property right and play an important role in economic development, a reward for innovations, add to the technological knowledgebase, and increase the general welfare. Patentees obtain patents for defensive purposes (file applications for publication and issuance to create prior art against others); commercial purposes (for licensing, monetization, or advertising/marketing); or offensive purposes (for enforcement). When a patentee chooses to enforce the patent, the end goal of patent litigation needs to be well-understood. This article will discuss some of the basics of the remedies available to patentees. Now obviously there are myriad considerations in patent infringement damages and injunctive relief so this article cannot do justice to all those situations.